Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-09
WORRY, NOT WORK.
The Causes That Make
People Aged.
HARD LABOR NOT WHAT KILLS.
It Does Not Follow That Men Are
Old Because They Are Three
Score Years And Ten.

In the year 1928, when he was sew
enty years old, Nathaniel Mason re-
signed his seat in the United States Sen.
ate. He did SO simply because he had
determined to retire from public office
when he reached that age. if he lived so
long. He was strotg man. Jefferson
spoke of him as "the last of the Ro-
maus." He had for nearly fifty years
held Office, and had been sixteen years
q Senator when he resigned. His friends
urged him to reconsider his determine.
ton, asserting that his mind and body
were as good as they ever were. He
replied that he knew it, and that he
proposed for that reason to quit public
life before his mind became SO feeble
that he would not know when to retire.
Yet he had ten years of health and per.
feet mental vigor before him, his powers
not failing until he was almost eighty
years of age. But Mason seems to have
been strongly impress sed with the senti-
ment SO prevalent in this country-that
seventy years were the limit of u mans
usefulness, and that lie should shut HIM
self up and wait for death when he
reached this age. Yet example after
example might be given to show that
seventy years find many, men in the
possession of vigorous minds and fairly
vigorous bodies, and that some of the
I. ,-o.t, that cur f,mnuo p.ap boua
done has been accomplished after they
have passed that scriptural bugbear,
three score and ten.
Alienists and other physicians who
make o study of mental and nervous
diseases are aware that the apprehen-
sion and gloom with which many men
permit themselves to be afflicted as they
approach the SEVENTEEN birthday have
much more to do with weakening and
demoralizing them than the burden of
years.
''If man in good health. and of sound
constitutional heritage, unimpaired by
bad habit would forget his age, he
would be quite likely TO run far over the
seventy-year limit before he finds his
mind or body burdened by years, J." said
the late DIR. Beard.
The coming of birthdays and the cele
bration of them make many men thitk
that their days are soon to be numbered,
because the Scriptures say they ought to
be when seventy years are reached. And
when such splendid examples of well
preserved, vigorous minds as Won Molt.
ke's. or Bsmarck's, or Lesseps', or Glad
stones or the late Lord Beaconsfield's
or Palmerstone's or Brougham are in
stanced to show that men past seventy
may reasonably hope to do work that
tells greatly in the making of history or
in the perfecting of career, it is too
apt to be answered that such examples
are exceptional, and, besides, the eli
mate of Europe may favor longevity,
while the bracing atmosphere OF America
tends to exhaust men early.
Yet we can match, and overmatch
Great Britain or the continental coun.
tries with examples of octogenarians of
splendid vigor and perfectly sustained
powers of mind and body. There are
too many of these illustrations that could
be cited to justify the belief that they
are necessarily exceptions. They rather
show that the chances are greatly in
favor of years of continued strength and
mental vigor for him who is approach
ing the Scriptural limit iu the unim-
paired possession of his faculties, and
that the man who passes his SEVENTEEN
birthday in good health is just entering
the youth of old age and not its limit.
When David Dudley Field is seen
walking erect, with vigorous step, clear
eye, and ruddy cheeks, down Broadway,
doing his little breather of two or three
miles daily, and working in his law
office like any young fellow just admit.
ted to the bar, no one would think of
calling him old. He is not. His years
are over eighty, but the weakness that
make old age are not his, and he is,
therefore not old. How is it that he
keeps SO young? people ask. Well,
there is splendid inheritance from a
vigorous ancestry, life in which no
sight drafts on old age have been drawn,
the cultivation af the power of resisting
all tendency to worry or anxiety,
the habit of early exercise in the fresh
air, and the giving Of free rein to sense
of humor. Barring the accidents of
life, to which all mortals are liable, Mr..
Field ought to be able to count on ten
or a dozen years more of activity. But
that will make him ninety, it may be
said. Yet Mr.. Field would not have to
look far to find that men of vigor, good,
sound minds in pretty tough bodies, are
to be found who have passed their nine.
tieth year, or closely approached it
There was his long time friend and
neighbor, Peter Cooper, whose mind
was unclouded at ninety, who was a
Presidential candidate when long past
eighty. land very respectable vote he
got, too) and who said to the writer that
il he lived ten years more he would see
the people accepting his views on the
Governments power and duty Of alone
issuing paper currency and on the ma.
tional bank sys EN-. This vigorous man
was not far wrong, either. Then there
was Mr.. Fields other friend, Thurlow
Weed, whose mind was acu. Q and memo.
ry unimpaired and whose bodily vigor
was gooa at eighty eight.
There was the late Judge Waldo. once
Congaessman, once Judge of the Con-
necticut Supreme Bench, with whom
Mr.. Field has had many legal bout.
He went off the Connecticut bench be.
cause he was seventy years old, and
at once took up lucrative prac
tlce which he did not quit till hear
ly ninety. Then there is that remark
able man whose ancestry, like Mr..
Fields, became strong men because they
lived hardy lives on New England hills,
Col. George L. Perkins, of Norwich,
Conn. He is q tai. dignifed man. His
cheeks are ruddy. There are few
wrinkles on his face. His eyes are not
blurred, and they light up with the en-
ioyment of fun. He steps off from his
house like young soldier, and walks
nearly mile to his office and he has
served for more than fifty years as treas
urer of the Norwich & Worcester Rail.
road Company. Last Summer he start
ed off with his wife on little pleasure
trip. Yet Col. Perkins is now in his
Goth year. Birthdays don't annoy him,